Oikocredit: Investing in hope

Presbyterians investing to overcome poverty

Most investments make money; few make a real difference. But your Investment in Hope through Oikocredit will make both. The financial return on your investment may be modest, but the impact can be life-changing:

• a job upon which to build a life;
• a small business to support a family;
• enough extra income to send a child to school.

Around the world, Oikocredit, an international Christian credit organization, turns investments into loans that bring hope. In our global economy, credit is often prohibitively expensive for self-help groups. And it often comes with "strings" that can lead to outside control of developing economies. Oikocredit offers an alternative: an affordable loan that encourages self-control. The projects financed are often small — a sewing machine to start a new shop, an improved market facility, machinery for processing crops — but they are critically important to the people who seek the loans to support them. "Oikocredit doesn’t change the world," says its annual report, "but we do help change the worlds of our partners."

Investing in Hope, a part of Enough For Everyone, encourages PC(USA) congregations to invest in Oikocredit. Investments can be made for as little as $1,000. It is a perfect way to put some of your investment funds to work for people who are working hard to help themselves. Remember, we’re not talking about gifts; we’re talking about an investment. Your money will be available when your church needs it. The fixed interest rate is 2% (or less if you choose). The payoff? A new relationship with the world’s poor ... one based on trust, accountability, and hope.

Investing in Hope links investment and mission, putting the dollars in your Building Fund or Contingency Fund to work in a way that witnesses to Jesus Christ, who came to bring good news to the poor.

The information contained on this Web site is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any investment product. That offer is made only in the prospectus that will be sent upon inquiry.

Celebrate World Fair Trade Day

May 9, 2009

World Fair Trade Day (WTFD) is Saturday, May 9, and congregations and communities are celebrating all month long. People in 70 countries around the world will hold events such as Fair Trade food tastings, house parties, speakers, festivals, concerts, and fashion shows to mark the day and highlight the importance and benefits of Fair Trade.

A number of organizations in the United States are working together to make WFTD 2009 the largest celebration of its kind. Many communities are celebrating WFTD over a period of two weeks, May 2-17, America’s First Fair Trade Fortnight. Plan an event or participate in one of more than 100 events taking place around the nation.

World Fair Trade Day is endorsed by IFAT (the International Fair Trade Association), a global association of over 300 organizations in 70 countries.

Learn more about PC(USA) involvement in fair trade and economic and environmental justice through the Presbyterian Coffee Project, the Global Marketplace, the Campaign for Fair Food, Sweat-Free Ts and Just Trade.

About the Logo

The boat that is prominent on Oikocredit’s logo is the traditional symbol of ecumenical partnership (Oikoumene). But more than that, it symbolizes the linking of people, sometimes divided by the seas, but more often divided by social, cultural, and economic differences.